EveryIncome is front-office marketing, prospecting, and education tool designed to help advisors promote themselves and their practices while encouraging the use of financial products through financial literacy, wellness, and education.

We all know it’s important to plan for retirement. But not all of us know how to do it — and many of us who do, don’t always have access to secure retirement planning.

There are literally hundreds if not thousands of “Client Relationship Management Systems” CRMs in the marketplace. I am selectively going to talk about some of the more popular or industry CRMs, yet not purposely excluding any specific vendor or CRM product. You can identify CRMs in 1 of 3 categories: Generic, Industry Specific, or Home Grown. The CRM companies that are Generic like the big names: SalesForce, Microsoft, and Oracle for example are powerful products. These Fortune 500 companies have figuratively unlimited resources to setup their software to fit your practice. Typically this can be a little more on the expensive side, but makes sense with a larger agency that has many advisors. I would be wary about a generic CRM solution from a small vendor because even though you can license it at a lower cost, you may find them to be problematic for a many reasons like incompatibility for integrating data and limited functionality. There are some new popular generic CRMs from middle size companies like like Zoho and HubSpot that are really easy to use and setup with a lot of functionality. It is easy to gravitate to Industry specific CRMs because they are practically ready to use right out of the box. See information on some industry specific CRMs below.

Last week, E4 Insurance Services hosted NAIFA’s Vice President of Marketing and Communications, Suzanne Carawan on the weekly BREW to discuss what's new with NAIFA.

Dan Peterson, President of E4 Insurance welcomed Suzanne and attendees and shared “The important part of financial advisors measuring up is the support of your industry. We have partnered up with NAIFA to support advocacy and by sponsoring advisor's membership dues with NAIFA.  We are proud to have Suzanne on today and thank you for allowing us to partner with NAIFA.”

NAIFA is pleased to announce that Randy Clark has joined the NAIFA team as Senior Director of Membership Outreach and Engagement.

For the past 11 years, Clark worked for the National Rifle Association and led teams responsible for growing membership programs, contractor sales, events and conferences, and industry partnerships. He also held leadership sales positions with Nauticon Imaging Solutions, AirTran Airways, and Coca-Cola. He holds a BS in Marketing from the University of Maryland.

The purpose of an annual review is to make sure your clients remain focused on their goals and adjust accordingly. But every now and then, a client will call you mid-year asking to change something carefully prepared for them. You know what I’m talking about. A client you have known for a while. A reasonable man or woman. They come in and say they just heard about this great product on TV. They really want it. You stare at them, stone-faced. It came out of the blue. You are familiar with that product. You know it is not for them. But they are enthused about it. More importantly, they demand the product! What do you do?

Blake Gillies, DIA, a loyal NIAFA member since 2012, NAIFA-LA President, and national Young Advisor Team (YAT) Co-Chair, is living his dream of serving in the insurance industry after following in his father’s footsteps. He currently practices with Acacia Financial Group in Metairie, LA, where he specializes in insurance, disability insurance, and income protection products and services designed to meet his client's needs. He also provides disability insurance expertise for the Southern Medical Association.

NAIFA is sad to learn that former national association President Jack Peckinpaugh passed away June 30 in Muncie, IN.

Peckinpaugh became a loyal NAIFA member in 1955. He began his insurance career with Indianapolis Life Insurance Company in November 1954, qualifying for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) his first full year in the business. He was a qualifying MDRT member for 66 consecutive years. He served as President of NAIFA-IN and was NAIFA’s national President during the 1981-1982 association year. He received the industry’s highest honor, the John Newton Russell Memorial Award, in 2004.

NAIFA is pleased to announce that Michelle Harris has joined the NAIFA team as Vice President of Business Development and External Relations.